Average

 March 2, 2024

How often are we encouraged to be our best, to excel, to reach for the stars? I wonder how much the drive to excel is driven by pride. I’m glad I’m only average at most things I’ve attempted. I’m not even close to being an athlete, barely passable as a musician, pretty good as a preacher, a terrible administrator, but I believe I am a good husband, father, and grandfather.

I’ve known enough failure and near disaster to keep my pride at bay. My forays into mission work have been only marginally successful. I often feel like the guy who wrote,

“Remove falsehood and lies far from me; 

Give me neither poverty nor riches— 

Feed me with the food allotted to me; 

Lest I be full and deny You, 

And say, “Who is the Lord?” 

Or lest I be poor and steal, 

And profane the name of my God.“

—Proverbs 30:8-9 

Abraham Lincoln once said, “God must have loved the common man; he made so many of them.” Sometimes, average is best.